Bush administration violates law: Environmentalists win White House suit

Press Release - Federal Court Ruling

Associated
Press/August 22, 2007 - A federal judge ordered the Bush administration
to issue two scientific reports on global warming, siding with
environmentalists who sued the White House for failing to produce the
documents.

U.S.
District Court Judge Saundra Armstrong ruled Tuesday that the Bush
administration had violated a 1990 law when it failed to meet deadlines
for an updated U.S. climate change research plan and impact assessment.

Armstrong
set a March 1, 2008 deadline for the administration to issue the
research plan, which is meant to guide federal research on climate
change. Federal law calls for an updated plan every three years, she
said. The last one was issued in 2003. [Strategic Plan for the US Climate Change Science Program 2003]

The
judge set a May 31, 2008 deadline to produce a national assessment
containing the most recent scientific data on global warming and its
projected effects on the country's environment, economy and public
health. The government is required to complete a national assessment
every four years, the judge ruled.

The last one was issued by the Clinton administration in 2000.

The
administration had claimed that it had discretion over how and when it
produced the reports - an argument the judge rejected Tuesday.

"The
defendants are wrong," Armstrong wrote in the 38-page ruling. "Congress
has conferred no discretion upon the defendants as to when they will
issue revised Research Plans and National Assessments."

The
plaintiffs - the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth
and Greenpeace - said the ruling was a rebuke to an administration that
has systematically denied and suppressed information on global warming.

"It's
a huge victory holding the administration accountable for its attempts
to suppress science," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney for the Center
for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs that filed suit in Oakland federal court in November.

Bush
administration officials were still reviewing the ruling Tuesday and
could not comment on it directly, said Kristin Scuderi, a spokeswoman
for the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy, which was named
in the lawsuit.

But
the administration is complying with the law, Scuderi said. The U.S.
Climate Change Science Program is working on 21 separate reports on
global warming's projected effects on the U.S and has started to
prepare a new research plan, she said.

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On the Net:

U.S. Climate Change Science Program: http://www.climatescience.gov/ / http://www.climatescience.gov/about/default.htm

http://www.climatescience.gov/events/index.php

Center for Biological Diversity: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/

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Judge orders White House to produce global warming reports
KESQ, CA - Aug 21, 2007
AP
- August 21, 2007 8:54 PM ET SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal judge has
sided with environmentalists who sued the White House and is now
ordering the Bush ...